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True Believers

If you have been reading this blog for any length of time, you know a theme here is that people are more often driven by irrational belief than cold hard reason. Evolutionary biology tells us the belief is one of the oldest cognitive traits, probably co-evolving with language. The quest for salvation, grace and glory are at the heart of human history, because they are the things that drive men to dominate other men.

In the current age, formal religion based on the super natural has mostly fallen away. Look at the empty churches across what we used to call Christendom and it is hard not to see the West as post-Christian. With some exceptions, the leaders of the free world, as we used to call the West, are secular men and women, lacking any identifiable attachment to a Christian sect. The exceptions are usually attached to modern sects that have found a way to wrap Christianity around the core of Rousseau-ist theology.

This “secularization” does not mean that men are less fanatical or lack belief. It just means it is untethered from the traditional constraints of organized religion. Christianity was particularly good at modulating belief, as well as directing it into useful habits. Of course, the Catholic Church was very good at rooting out the dangerous fanatics. The suppression of the flagellants is a good example and one relevant to our current age.

My favorite example, as an aside, is Konrad Schmidt, who claimed to be Frederick II and baptized himself in the blood of his followers. His band of fanatics abandoned their normal lives and spent their days praying in preparation for Judgment Day. The Inquisition had them burned at the stake before they caused too much trouble. For most of human history, people understood that the unhinged fanatic was more dangerous than the barbarian at the gate.

Read that Vox article and the only conclusion is that the writer is so committed to open borders she can no longer accept reality. Instead she is forcing reality into the world she believes is just over the next hill, the fulfillment of prophesy. Amanda Taub may be harmlessly crazy, but the people running Western countries are just as unhinged as she is over the topic of immigration. Open borders is now a religion for these people. They will die for it, or at least let you die for it.

What other conclusion can be drawn from current events?

There’s no economic argument for importing foreigners. Wages in Western countries have been flat for decades. There are no unfilled jobs that can only be filled by foreigners. The demand for unskilled labor is falling, as automation take over in the West. Importing millions of illiterate young men who have no usable skills and the IQ of a grapefruit adds nothing but a burden to the economies of the West.

The other side of this is who has ever heard someone demand that their town or village invite foreign settlement? Were the residents of Amsterdam demanding their government fill up their city with Moroccans? Were Germans in Frankfurt organizing rallies in the 80’s demanding the importation of Turks? Did the people of Lewiston Maine ever get a chance to vote on the importation of Somalis?

Of course not. There never has been a practical reason to import foreigners into the West, much less hostile, low-IQ savages from the Middle East. Whatever contributions have been made to the Belgian economy by Muslims were just blown to bits by a pair of suicide bombers. There are now rivers of blood because the leadership of Europe has been overrun by what looks increasingly like a suicide cult.

Angela Merkel, who will be remembered as one of history’s greatest monsters, is a good example to study. This piece on her from a few months ago walks you through her “evolution” from mundane Christian lady to a prominent deacon is what amounts to liberation theology, centered on the annihilation of the West as penance for generations of oppression.

Merkel is not alone, of course. The religion of the West, at least for the people in charge, is the toxic blend of egalitarianism, multiculturalism and anti-racism. The more the bodies stack up, the more they are convinced they must somehow atone for the sins of the West. Each new blast renews their faith. There’s no reasoning with them and there is no bargaining with them. They are true believers.

Leftism might be a neurotic travesty of some motives of Christianity, unmoored from integration into a comprehensive and balanced theology, let a alone a true belief in God, and therefore running amok. The more difficult it becomes to “love thy neighbor,” i.e. the non-White or/and non-Christian, because he ever more reveals himself to be a total jackass (or killer), the more frantically you flaunt your love for him because it makes you an ever better pseudo-Christian. In real Christianity, you could atone for your sins and ultimately obtain God’s forgiveness. In godless but Christianity-aping White Leftism—and there isn’t any other,… Read more »

I’ve noticed that race to the moral high ground. The new believers intend to try to out-Christian the Christians. For example, instead of simply adopting a normal foreign or domestic child like themselves to create a family, they’ll adopt a traumatized darker kid with birth defects, schizophrenia, PTSD, and AIDS.

That trend was growing in Silicon Valley back when I was living there. I never quite understood why anyone would go all the way to China to bring back a child when there are thousands of American orphans and abandoned kids in their own country. Is that just some liberal thing?

It has a great deal to do with birth parents’ rights. In some states all ties are cut once the adoption goes through, but other states give birth parents certain rights. Many prospective adoptive parents don’t want to go through that or take a chance that the birth parent changes her mind. Then there is the foster kid situation, where foster parents might want to adopt, but the birth parent, who is oftentimes a drug addict, asserts their right and claims they are getting clean, which prevents the adoption. It can be a very messy process all around and some… Read more »

Unfortunately yes. There was just a case in the news a day or two ago, in California, where a 6 year old was taken by the state from the only home she remembers (taken in by them at age 2) because it was discovered that she is 1/64th Americsn Indian. This is pure insanity.

@ Kathleen – My heart goes out to the children caught in this nonsense. I’m sure there are thousands of wonderful, hopeful couples who would love to have one of these children caught in a screwed up system. Thanks for the explanation.

If it wasn’t for the adoption business then everything (else) we imported from China is crap. I don’t know what the real numbers are, but; my sister, who lives in a liberal enclave south of Boston asked me to photograph her adopted daughters playgroup at Halloween, 75% of the kids were Chinese girls. They all had really puzzled looks on their faces as they sat there in silly costumes posed for pictures. “What strange customs these people have” I thought they must be thinking.

Actually, my husband has a relative that did that. The wife adopted a black child from a drug addicted mother. Ray is somewhat retarded and schizophrenic and intimidating now that he is grown as he is over six feet tall.

The wife left the marriage and left the child with her husband. Walt raised him and did a fine job of it. We feel it was his pennace for participating in My Lai. The desire for atonement and forgiveness doesnt leave, just because you aren’t religious.

Europe spent most of 1200 years trying to eject the very same savages back to the Middle East. They finally achieved a fair measure of success in 1829 when the Greeks won their independence from the Ottoman Empire. Until the Marxist / socialist globalist virus destroyed their brains, it was common wisdom in Europe that Muslim immigrants were not welcome and should not be tolerated. They tried to take over, intimidate, impose their crazy cult, and generally made nuisances of themselves. Crazy that they have to learn the same thing all over again less than 200 years later.

The Barbarous Book, printed in 949 A.D., warns the reader about the new neighbors.
It describes how at first they seem friendly enough, though a bit standoffish and lazy; it cautions that as their numbers grow, they begin to resort to theft, threats, rape, and murder. A thousand years ago!

“Angela Merkel, who will be remembered as one of history’s greatest monsters…” Really? Just look at what your past few presidents have done to your own country, the Middle East and elsewhere in the world. Your country is broke, your kids can’t afford college, you can’t afford health care but meanwhile (to keep you all distracted from reality) your military keeps the evening news full of stories about slaughtering innocent people with drone strikes. And you call Angela a monster? I know, when Americans obliterate a car or truck in where-ever-istan and some children get blown away, that’s just collateral… Read more »

@ theZman – Well done – and thank you.:-) It was an obvious gauntlet thrown down which no self respecting German could resist! I do look forward to the replies I’m sure will come from the gathering of minds who join your forum.

The problem here, “Horst,” is that you are not a German at all but an online imposter, a sock puppet. A fact so obvious after two replies an essay or so back it surprises me that so many have taken you at your word.

Really? You’ll note that he blew right past my observation. This is a pattern you see often when somebody calls out a sock puppet. Ignore at first, post quickly and in quantity hoping to get the observation to just scroll on, and hope nobody notices or remembers. If you can see the IP address he’s coming in from it MIGHT be revealing. Then again that can be spoofed as well. Be careful about letting some folks hijack your comments section. Ace of Spades, whose comments section often runs over a thousand per posting, just had to go full Retard/Little Green… Read more »

“@ theZman – Well done – and thank you.:-) It was an obvious gauntlet thrown down which no self respecting German could resist! I do look forward to the replies I’m sure will come from the gathering of minds who join your forum.”

In this comment and other he’s just a wee bit too charming, and too flattering, and too at ease with the vernacular level of English, don’t you think?

@ Vanderleun – You are partially correct. If you could see my IP, you would find it is not German at all. It’s Swiss. Because that’s where I currently live. You can blame the British and American schools for my English skills since I attended both when I was kid. I have also lived most of my nearly 60+ years back and forth between the US and Europe with Australia thrown in just for fun. Hope this clarifies your suspicion. 🙂 No, sorry…no sock puppets here and no, I’m not going to post my Reisepass as proof of citizenship. You’ll… Read more »

Well, Z-man, you seem to have struck a nerve. Nevertheless, there are some things out there to consider… 2008 winner of the Charlemagne Prize (Coudenhove-Kalergi European Prize): Merkel Coudenhove-Kalergi plan (google this. quite disturbing) Coudenhove-Kalergi’s plan for the total destruction of Christian Europe has two goals: The first – the destruction of the nation-state through the creation of a single European central government – has been pushed forward quite openly, and is well-known and -understood by opponents. The second – the destruction through mass immigration and the promotion of integration and interbreeding The ultimate goal being a dumbed-down, homogenous, sheep-like… Read more »

@ Crispin – (nice handle by the way, very Shakespearian of you!) Interesting read. I’m going to do some digging and find out more about it myself. But let’s be fair. Has America implemented such a plan? No. Has America been destroyed by mass immigration and interbreeding? No, not really. Unless you apply that theory of destroying the native American population which has certainly happened under intentional government planning against them. Let’s be honest – dumbing down a population is really easy and you don’t need a master plan to accomplish it. Americans went from having the best academic institutions… Read more »

“Americans went from having the best academic institutions in the world (MIT, Stanford, etc.) and have now have some of the lowest levels of academic achievement in the world. In 2012, the U.S. average mathematics score (481) was lower than the average for all OECD countries (494). I doubt it was due to 11-million illegal Mexicans suddenly showing up.”

No. It’s mostly the 40 million blacks with an average IQ of 85. Ignore them and the U.S. does just fine academically.

If true, then you have to account for the higher than average Asian scores. That should skew the data upwards even with the Blacks. But that’s an interesting point. I read that if you ignored the Black crime, gun crime in American would be about even with Switzerland.

One caveat- 90% the native populations of both North and South America were lost due to disease, mostly between 1500 to 1600 A.D. These were emptied lands; the Natives were Neolithic, and their civilizations, with a few cities as large as London or Peking, were forgotten as they returned to savagery. Before then , however, they had conducted continent-ranging wars.

Still lead the world in patents issued. Many of our best and brightest can’t be bothered with that regimented crap taught in universities. Hmmmm, how many nations’ flags have been planted on the moon by space-travelling humans from what counties? Oh, yeah, that’s right, just one.

Yes, if it weren’t for good old Werner saying, “You take a rocket and go to the moon!”, we’d have never gotten there. Never mind those thousands upon thousands of engineers at Boeing, IBM, North American Aviation, and Douglas Aircraft Company who conceived of, designed, prototyped, perfected, and produced the Saturn V rocket that gave the US the heavy lift to LEO capability that ultimately took us to the moon. Sometimes almost literally reaching into the future to pull back technology that wouldn’t be used again for 15-20 YEARS to make such a machine possible. No, it was just that… Read more »

Not so, at least not past the idea of using a turbo pump to create a high pressure reaction stream from two liquid fuels. The V-program proved the concept, but the execution is vastly different, and of an exceptionally more advanced design in the Rocketdyne F-1 engine. That’s like saying that Karl Benz should be congratulated for Mercedes winning the Australian F1 Grand Prix last weekend because all the technology they used to do it was based on his work on the first automobile. I’ll give credit where it is due, and it is due to the brilliant engineers at… Read more »

You are just being stubborn. NASA went from a green field to the moon in 24 years but Von Braun had nothing to do with that. Right. Just coincidence that the Germans had the most advanced weapons of WWII (until a couple of the tribe they chased out iin the 30’s built the A-bomb in the U.S.)

You refuse to acknowledge what actually happened, VS what you THINK happened, and I’M the stubborn one? With respect, go fuck yourself. Von Braun oversaw the production of the first IRBM during WWII. That’s the totality of his contribution to rocketry. It is one hell of a jump from there to landing on the moon, and most all of that space was created by people other than herr Werner. I cannot help it that some of you are so technically illiterate that you can’t fathom this. It is none the less true. It is also true that Oppenheimer and other… Read more »

Which was just an extension of work pioneered by American Robert Goddard. Besides, the American space program went far beyond anything Von Braun could ever conjure up. Something about those American IBM computers……..

Self-righteous much, Karl? Thanks for the big-time Leftist lecture. Please tell all us hypocritical, murdering Americans about the perfection of German history, and the muscular Christianity the average German possesses.

I like this verse: John 8:7 “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone.” People in glass houses and all.

@ Kathleen – 1st: In the last century, Germany was in two wars for less time than the US has been at war in this century. They were futile wars and the Nazi’s committed atrocities that nearly obliterated our country and brought devastation to our people. We learned the hard way that rolling into other people’s countries with guns blazing isn’t always the best way to solve problems. That’s why German kids haven’t been coming home in boxes since 1945. 2nd: We don’t brag about our participation in church like it somehow makes us morally superior – we’re not and… Read more »

Leftists always, always point out all the bad things in American history, just like you did. I have no problem with criticism of American history as long as it is the truth and not propaganda to tear down the nation, or absurd focus on the bad without remembering all the good. This is typical Leftist behavior. And hearing constant criticism of America by other countries whose history is just as bloody as ours, who think their cultures are somehow superior because they’ve been around longer is a bit galling. Would you enjoy it much if I crafted a long, windy… Read more »

Here’s that “long windy recitation”…1914-1918 then 1938-1945, short count of years of Germany was at war. Mean while America has been at war with someone, somewhere for over 100-years. Plus they nuked not one, but two civilian populations. The only country in the world to use atomic weapons on another nation – ever.

And again I ask…how is Merkel a monster compared to what Mr. Bush and President Obama have been responsible for given what little it has achieved relative to the price? Shall we expect a continuation from the next President?

Germany only became a unified nation state after a series of wars (Denmark, Austria, France). Then, in the next 70 years, it was responsible for the two most destructive and lethal wars in world history. I will also add that the indiscriminate use of bomber aircraft against civilian targets was also a German invention, and that the invention of the atom bomb came about to counter the Nazi threat and couldn’t have been achieved without Jewish physicists who escaped the Nazi terror.

I am not the person who called Merkel a monster. Perhaps you’d be better off directing your comments to that person? And those “short count of years of Germany” account for Germany’s participation in two World Wars. Germany being directly responsible for WWII. Two World Wars, where countless millions were killed, before we even got to Hiroshima or Nagasaki near the end of the war. Plus, are the war dead in WW I and II the only times Germany has participated in war? I think not. War is part of the story of the human race; no country has a… Read more »

There’s something loathsomely smug and repellent about boasting how “German kids haven’t been coming home in boxes since 1945” when someone else has born the burden of your security all that time. Karl believes that this is somehow due to a kind of grand enlightenment that descended on the German soul after the Nazi wreckage – how Germans “learned the hard way” that “blazing guns” didn’t solve any “problems,” when in fact the truth is that the discretion to make such decisions was taken from them as the price of peace in Europe, and all Germany’s neighbors were heartily glad… Read more »

I’m making the point you should stop sending your children to die in a meaningless war with few it any results. Your grandfathers ended the Nazis (thank you) but you will never end the stupidity and ignorance of the Middle East in the same way. Don’t forget the Americans occupied Germany, Japan and Korea with thousands of US soldiers to maintain the peace. I don’t see that happening again in the Middle East.

It’s Moloch. It’s the tophet. Whether you consider those to be real manifestations of evil or archetypical representations of tendencies in the human subconscious, no matter. The cult of death is back. The abortionists, the euthanasia enthusiasts, the devotees of Santa Muerte, and the soldiers of ISIS all serve the same being or human need. Our post-[Christian, heroic, patriarchal, fill in the blank] civilization is not up the confronting the death cult fanatics. The word being tossed around a lot right now is remnant. Wherever the human race goes next, the remnant will take it there.

I agree with you, totally. Good old fashioned Democrats, the ones that are dead center and you can actually discuss things with, are nothing like the Regressives on the Left. No, those on the Left seem to loath all things moral. It’s as if they hate having to live like they have a moral compass. The fact that most Leftists are atheist leads me to believe that they both believe in God and hate him, so they deny his existence and promote cultural rot in a nation. I want to clarify that plenty of atheists are fine people, but man…… Read more »

@ 5MilesOut – And I agree with you fully. As one who has grown up from the ashes of one of the most evil governments in the world (at least in modern times) I caution you to take care with extremism – even in the right. Despite your many faults, America has been and can be the moral compass and light of freedom for the rest of the world. Please do not confuse my criticism of America with ignorant bashing. There are still plenty of us who stand with you, it’s why we are more critical – we expect more,… Read more »

Our military is good because Americans are a good people!
Our State, sadly, is ruled by the Remnant- the sociopathic 2% of any population are also the top alphas, because they will do anything. 5 million years ago, it didn’t matter, as they were all just stupid apes anyways.

@Karl. Naw, I wasn’t directing my moral/atheist comment at you; I was agreeing with el baboso. I’m well aware of extremes from both the Right and the Left. And America has ALWAYS been a beacon of light, and she always will be. And as far as Germany goes, I’ve never thought poorly of her or her past. I say lay to rest what was done over 70 years ago. I’m, honestly, so tired of reading the word Nazi, Hitler, Holocaust that I immediately stop reading whatever it is. I know the history of Germany. She’s always been chalked full of… Read more »

@ 5MilesOut – There is no question that in the end, we all want the same thing. To live our lives in peace and raise our families and watch our children grow up happy and healthy. It’s the extremist in any group that tends to ruin even that basic idea for everyone else.

The flagellants get a bad rap. I’ve been arguing for some time now that a good old fashioned flagellant procession would solve a lot of our problems. What better way is there to virtue-signal than beating oneself bloody in public? Liberal activists are always trying to “raise awareness” of this or that….I’m much likelier to be aware of someone lashing himself for the cause. It’d give sophomoric busybodies the attention they crave, and a hobby, and for the rest of us, well… if you suspect your new coworker is an SJW, just look for the telltale scars. What’s not to… Read more »

“The religion of the West, at least for the people in charge, is the toxic blend of egalitarianism, multiculturalism and anti-racism.” Perfectly summed up by Pope Shitty the First. Tomorrow’s Maundy Thursday – look for him to crawl on his knees to smooch Muslim feet. Maybe this year he’ll manage to make sure that ALL the feet belong to Muslims, females or perverts. He barely catches his breath after praying for peace and “mercy” to demand that MORE Muslims slouch into Europe. “Refugee” boats now have pride of place in Nativity scenes.

Aww! Europe is kind of like an Old World Disneyland, with funny costumes and dances instead of cartoon characters prancing around. And they created some decent original cuisines, so its got that goin’ for it. Problem is, the best and brightest of Europe were absolutely and brutally wasted by that hellish experience known as the Great War. The mistake Wilson made was intervening thus allowing the Allies to prevail. That fine mess was followed by the great flu pandemic which took away many of those remaining good folk who survived the horrors of the Western Front. Europe has simply never… Read more »

@Delbert. What a tragedy it would be for that to happen. The world’s IQ would drop, tremendously. Not to mention, the destruction of a rich cultural history, beauty, invention and the people that created it all.I say save Europe. This world is much, much better because of her.

I do feel for Europe, especially Germany. My own opinion is that many Europeans know from family and history just how bad it can get, and put up with almost anything rather than rock the boat, for fear of open war, even if it seems likely to non-Europeans that the boat is going over the falls. Europe’s history is brutal. That’s why my people got the hell out of Hesse.

The Leftists morons have always been enthralled with notions of equality of economic result and social status. Now they have decided that all human distinctions can be breed out of homo sapiens by a great mixing of peoples and cultures: nothing left but a great homogeneous mass of humanity without borders or nationality. Crazy stupid but our “leaders” are true believers.

“Let you die for it” is the takeaway line. There is no sacrifice by others too great for a leftist to demand in fulfillment of their ideology. Made the fates of Bukharin, Trotsky et al, justice of a sort. Personally already experienced the “fruits” is Islamic terrorism up close and personal once (my spouse twice). Not up for a repeat and really don’t care if a bunch of would be refugees…er, economic migrants and their Progressive enablers get all butt hurt about the lack of welcome.

Who is asking the question: Why are our western leaders accepting the idea of cleaning up the mess of other, despotic non-western leaders who are trashing their own countries so desperately that everyone there wants to leave? Where is the political fortitude? Where is the UN? If the citizenry can’t abide tarring, feathering, and public shaming when leaders spin out of control, then the only viable outcome left is revolution.